Selina Scott's attack does not prove London has fallen
Last week Selina Scott, the former ITV News at Ten anchor, was assaulted and robbed in a busy area of central London. Scott said she was 'furious about the lack of police on our streets', as the attack happened in broad daylight in the West End. The Metropolitan Police quickly responded defending the number of officers on patrol – 'not just in uniform on foot, but also in plain clothes and in vehicles'.
Scott's attack will be taken by some as further proof that 'London has fallen'. This phrase, usually posted online by people finger-wagging from outside the M25, has come to encompass a number of gripes about London – from crime rates in the capital to how many shops are run by immigrants.
Matt Goodwin's assertion that London is 'so over', after a day of expensive pints, cancelled trains and people with accents, has been shared by others as proof that London is 'now in visible decline, with deteriorating standards and no real sense of identity or belonging'.
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, but my hackles cannot help but rise. It's all getting a bit Brass Eye – Tory MPs tweeting about trains with graffiti and social commentators complaining that the UK's biggest urban area doesn't have more of a quiet, leafy feel to it.
These critics have more in common with Sadiq Khan 's desire to pedestrianise the capital city into suburban hell than the average Londoner. If Robert Jenrick posts another video complaining about car boot sales I'm going to scream. Cities are full of life – none so full as London. They also attract extremes, which means along with the buzz and the beauty comes filth, chaos and even danger. The day London becomes more like Potters Bar is the day it truly has fallen.
That all being said, the fact that Scott – a 74-year-old woman – was attacked in broad daylight and not even offered help to get home is not nothing. Rising crime, from the theft of phones and bicycles to serious assault and even murder, should not be a part of London's identity. So whose fault is it?
The Met's response to Scott's assault is telling. There might well be a higher number of police officers being sent out to patrol the streets, but that doesn't mean that they're making a difference to public safety. Today, you would be more likely to get a police visit if you wrote something politically incorrect on X than if you were to jump a granny.
At the risk of asking the armed wing of the state to find its bicep, it's true that the police seem unable or unwilling to do their job properly – a fact that's known and abused by those who want to get up to no good. The Met is capable of cracking heads when it wants to. No force is spared on Tommy Robinson supporters or lockdown critics. No police power is too big for the parents who misspoke on WhatsApp.
Big cities always have their problems, but they're also always changing. Hackney's murder mile is now almost solely populated by middle-class hipsters on Lime bikes. From council bores strangling London nightlife by imposing noise controls and cancelling late licences to pearl-clutchers scared of busy tubes, many want to turn London into something it isn't. My home city hasn't quite fallen, but there seem to be a lot of people willing it to.
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